Sausage turn out ok? I had worked out four different formulations, and this was the one that nailed Pizza Factory's flavor profile. But all four were great. I can post those if you want some ideas for tinkering.

The sausage was pretty good and not overwhelming - which is what you want (IMO) from a pizza sausage. I have some left in the freezer, so I'll thaw it as needed.

I haven't gotten around to making any more pizzas lately, due to work and other assorted things. I'm going to fire up the mixer today for another batch of dough to use later this week.

You were right, 72 hours is perfect for the dough. It came out perfectly thin and crispy and is exactly what I've been looking for. My wife told me that after these years of trying different doughs, sauces, etc, that this dough was her favorite and she asked me to stop tinkering with it. She said that overall this pizza was her favorite that I've made in a long time.

I use a different crushed tomato base sauce which is a hit with my wife and kids, who are my target audience.

I didn't use any toppings other than cheese on one pizza, and just used ham on the others. I had forgotten to thaw my home made sausage, and my beloved pepperoni has been giving me heartburn.

I placed my pizza stone on the top rack and let it heat with the oven to 450. The first pie was on my preheated Lodge cast iron pizza pan, the second was on a cheap perforated pan and the third was on a screen. All 3 had similar crust texture, which was crispy but not cracker-ish.

Thanks again to Garvey and the other people that make this such a great forum.

This thread rocks! After having learned of Chicago thin crust only a few weeks ago, I was intrigued immediately. As a New Yorker, we tend to get a bit geocentric about what we feel is "real" pizza (and I'm sure this allegiance for the home team is a stance we have all assumed at some point, regardless of region). But when I first saw a pic of Chicago thin, the doors of my closed-mind regarding pizza were blown off! "This looks legit!"

Anyhow, one question: is it necessary to roll out the dough (with some kind of rolling device) before baking these bad boys? From the searches I've done on recipes, it seems as if it is a necessary step to get as close to the real thing as possible. Having never tried this style of pizza before, I won't know how close I'm getting to the real McCoy until I get my arse out to the Windy City and go on a pizza tour of some sorts.

Just want to say again... this thread is awesome; this site is awesome. I love the dedication to the art that you all exude.

holy crap Malanga, if you just heard about chicago thin, you've been missing out!!!!!! yes, you need to roll out the dough. most shops use a sheeter, but you can get the same result using a rolling pin! it took me many tries before I started getting reasonable circle shapes, but i find that it's way easier if you start with a round dough ball. try and proof your dough in a bowl or something.

Word up! Thanks for the quick reply. I'm drooling buckets looking at the pics you guys have been posting. I'll be sure to post anything I come up with. Gonna trow together some dough today. I'm still scaleless (but not for long) but I'll try by volume and see what happens for now.

WOW that pie looks gangbusters CDNpielover! I'm not even hungry and I'm salivating (... ok, now I'm hungry). I'd pay for that pie! And as I'm saying this, there is a "pizzeria" about 230 feet that I can see from my apartment window that I will go nowhere near after trying their "pizza." Such a tease... Sorry for the rant. You're pics got me a bit emotional me thinks. Great work!

CDN - thanks for the inspiration on the peppers. I forgot how much I love peppers on pizza, so I'll be working on this again.

Malanga, just go with it. This really is a good pizza, and as much as I LOVE the deep dish Chicago pizza, now that I've started making the thin crusts, I haven't made a deep dish in over a year. And Garvey's dough recipe is great.

Thanks for posting this recipe. It really reminds me of a place in Elmhurst I ate at in the early 80's called Two Brothers. Looks very similar and when they delivered it was bagged back then as well. The crust as I remember it was somewhere in between a full cracker crust and New York type crust in that it was slightly crackery but not layered.

This thread has inspired me to try a Chi thin for my next pie. I've been in Pizza making hiatus for awhile now because of time and frustration with conquering Ny/Neo pies not to mention having to coordinate the cold rise with my schedule. I actually forgot about cross cut thin and just how good they were. Not sure I've got all the ingredients for your sauce but I might try a variant of it. One question though is do you generally use a roller on this type pie dough? I know that's a cardinal sin on a Neopolitan/Ny but I don't see how else you could get it ruler flat like that.

I must admit that until I went back and re-read the older posts I had a real question about basing any sauce on paste. I could imaging using a teaspoon here or there once in a while but my past is full of attempts to use paste as a base with disastrous results. Then I saw where Garvey specifically mentions the need to use Contadina as opposed to Hunts or any other brand. I believe it was Hunts and one or two others that turned me off paste for good about 8-10 years ago, but I don't believe I ever used Contadina. Hunts and the other brands I used appeared orange as opposed to red and IMHO were nothing more than concentrated poor tomatoes. I'm going to pick up a can of Contis the way home tonight in prep for this week end.

Paste is what the original Pizza Factory actually used, which is what this recipe is a clone of. Contadina plus all the added herbs and spices should yield a maroon sauce. (FWIW, I think many Southside thin crust joints used paste as the base. It has a rich flavor, is very thick, is compact for storage, etc.) It is precisely the paste base in Pizza Factory sauce that allows/requires the use of such heavy herbage.

All that being said, if you have a different sauce recipe you prefer, go for it. But if you stick with paste, try to adhere to the mass quantities of herbs. Otherwise, it won't come out right.

The real kicker, though, is finding good sausage for this pizza. Hopefully, you have a source. Otherwise, it really isn't worth it to make any variety of Chicago pizza, IMO.